Cook balloon induction experiences

[Chalalala90]

There seem to be very few mentions of cook balloon inductions on here and most people seem to be being induced with pessaries.

Any experiences of cook balloons? My consultant feels this is the better option for me. The limited information I can find talks about how painful it is - something that terrifies me, especially as partner can’t be with me until I’m 4cm dilated.

Some honest experiences would be amazing - including how it is actually inserted as I can’t find any information on this!

I had this. It wasn't painful at all really. It was with my second baby though so my cervix was already 1/2cm dilated which made it easier to insert. It looked quite terrifying with all the plastic they needed to insert (!) but it was totally fine and just a bit uncomfortable.

I had to wait 12 hours (or until it fell out itself- which mine didn't), where I walked a lot and experienced mild cramping only.

Then they broke my waters and hooked me up to the drip (I insisted on an epidural FIRST which I thoroughly recommend).
I had a wonderful, pain free, calm birth.

I would recommend you take books and iPad etc as the wait felt sooo long. I hope you have the same positive experience I did .

I had the balloon induction a few weeks ago. It doesn't hurt, just a bit uncomfortable - midwife compared it to the discomfort of a smear test which was probably about right for me - and I found it weird moving around with it in. Mine fell out after an hour and a half after bouncing on a ball for a bit.

Most annoying part of the process was waiting for a bed on delivery (about 30 hours ish). I was at high risk of cord prolapse so then had to wait another 6 hours for a doctor to break my waters. Once that had been done contractions started after a couple of hours and were strong enough that I didn't need to go on the drip.

Timing wise I had waters broken at about 6am and had baby at 1.28pm - much quicker and more intense than my first natural labour but managed on just gas and air. It wasn't what I had planned but was still an amazing experience.

There were a number of ladies on the ward who had the pessary and their contractions sounded horrendous even at just a few cm dilated so glad I avoided that!